EVENTS: Meiji Jingu Classic Car Festival & Parade, Part 01

We’re extremely lucky to attend as many J-tin filled shows as we do, so it might sound like a first world problem when we say there’s always one teensy issue: The cars are stationary. That’s why when the Toyota Automobile Museum decided to host a classic car festival and parade in the heart of Tokyo, we simply had to go.

Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S

Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

Toyota Crown MS51

Toyota Corolla E10

Toyota Publica

Meiji Jingu Gaien is a 175 acre park in the middle of Japan’s busiest city. It’s big enough to house all manner of sports complexes among its greenery, including a golf driving range, skating rink and two baseball stadiums. Commissioned in 1912, it honors the Meiji Era royal family for their role in modernizing Japan. When the weather is nice, it’s packed with Tokyoites looking for a brief respite from the urban jungle.

Isuzu 117

Nissan Fairlady 240ZG

Nissan Fairlady 240ZG

Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

Toyota Celica

Toyota Celica XX

Toyota AE86

Suzuki Jimny

Toyopet Crown

Subaru 360

Toyota Sprinter

According to the official press release, Toyota held the festival “to promote and develop automobile culture and encourage interaction among car fans.” That’s as noble a reason as any we’ve heard, and those familiar with the Toyota Automobile Museum know that it contains much more than Toyotas. It’s a celebration of all cars, including those from Toyota’s rivals both foreign and domestic. Nissan even gets a shout-out as an event partner; how cool is that?

In addition to dozens of its own cars, trucked over dozens of cars the museum home in Aichi Prefecture about four hours away, Toyota invited about 100 privately owned vehicles to participate.

A Toyota 2000GT with its spiritual successor, a Lexus LFA Spyder

Prince Gloria

Nissan Silvia CSP311

Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

Nissan Fairlady 240ZG

Not Japanese: The owner of this Lamborghini Miura revved constantly to keep it from stalling.

Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S

Toyota Sports 800

Honda N600 Touring

So on a crisp winter morning in Tokyo, we stood along one of the park’s nearby streets, an avenue lined with bright yellow gingko trees, waiting for the parade to begin. Leading the procession was a 1960 RS21 Toyopet Crown from Toyota’s own collection. Following behind was a who’s who of Nihon nostalgics — everything from a 2000GT to a Watted Fairlady 240ZG to a pair of Mazda Cosmo Sports.

Toyota Publica

Toyota Celica

Nissan Bluebird 312

Toyota Corona T20

Toyota Corona T20’s optional rear brake light

Mitsubishi Jeep

Nissan Skyline C10 hakosuka

Watching stunning examples of classic machinery driving was cool enough, but the fact that it was the streets of Tokyo provided an entirely new appreciation for the cars themselves. A Toyota Publica, for example, looks ridiculously small even when parked on the JCCS lawn. But when it’s mingling with a fleet of modern kei cars in a narrow Japanese traffic lane, it suddenly makes sense. Likewise, a hakosuka Skyline fits in perfectly amongst Tokyo’s rigidly geometric buildings and glass-smooth roads. It looks at home, because it is.

Toyota Celica A20

Prince Clipper

Toyota Proges, not part of the parade but cool nonetheless

Hino Contessa

Toyopet Crown

Toyota Corolla E20

Toyota straight sixes

The best part, though, was witnessing multiple nostalgics on the pavement simultaneously, fraternizing in traffic like a street scene from 1976. Ignore the Prius taxis and it was pre-Bubble Japan all over again.

This particular street was leading to the park itself, so it was relatively uncluttered. Most of the rest of Tokyo does have businesses along the streets, and some areas are like Times Square on crack.

Wow, the sight, smell, and sound at this thing must’ve been wonderful. Kudos to Toyota for doing stuff like this and promoting car culture; they really are THE car company. I’m really digging the picture format, too. That’s a nice looking original Jimny, perfect in that color.

It was a great event. Skorj and I used bicycles to navigate the enormous park, and as we were riding along the street curving around one of the stadiums a Mazda Cosmo Sport was just there, pacing beside us for a bit before it took off. It was surreal.

Sorry, no video. About half of these photos were shot on Skorj’s old school film cameras. The crazy colors on some of them are because Skorj gave me a roll of film from 1991! The cars were driving in Tokyo traffic, so there wasn’t much to hear except idling.

It sure was a sight! Thanks for coming out and meeting up. I completely agree, seeing all the cars there felt like traveling back in time. Even the smell of each engine putt putting along as they went by was bliss.

Ben & I had three cameras between us and we attempted to capture not just the cars, but the feel of the day as well. As Ben says, the combination of the nostalgic cars with the nostalgic look of an old lens (Bronica for the 6×6 square format & Ricoh Auto Half for the 35mm) seems to have worked really well on this day. So the comments on that are appreciated… Arigato!